MINNE, George
(b. 1866, Gent, d. 1941, Laethem-Saint-Martin)

Small Kneeling Figure

1896
Marble, height 47 cm
Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Ghent

In his early years, Minne produced both expressively sculpted images and more contemplative figures. Around 1897, the typical figures of kneeling, mourning, or injured figures from his earlier oeuvre underwent a process of purification and abstraction, as seen in the more stylized and refined figure of the kneeling youth, Minne's best-known sculpture. In the famous Fountain of the Kneeling Youths, he arranged five identical copies around a water basin with a controlled rhythm of straight or curved lines and surfaces.